Skrying on the Tree of Life:

So in the case of the Tree of Life, and here is where I differ, in terminology, the lowest sphere is comprised of hidden/subconscious/Occult (in the literal sense) associations, primal atavisms, unconscious prejudices/biases/blueprints that for the most part we are not aware of.
How I use Tarot, and designed my own Tarot is to bring out these unconscious, subliminal contents and make them conscious by gazing intently at each major archetype in a series - though I do not find the modern Tarot's useful for this, (entirely subjective aesthetics) and living or activiating the archetypal image as if an experience - one talks to the characters, lets their mind wash over the image and speak its mind, tell you what it is, lets colours, emotions, opinions come to the fore and some of them, often surprise the person viewing them. This is the first step to moving through the Spheres, creating a baseline of what Work needs to be done in the Great Work.

Thank you for your definition and reply.

This does sound an interesting way to work with tarot. I might try that. It seems like an attempt to access your own unconscious feelings with a bridging experience of the archetypal energies themselves...perhaps... I wondered from what you said in your first post, how it might be difficult to avoid projections (and creating major headaches) when a part of them appear to be archetypal in origin. Perhaps this might also be difficult when trying to part the spheres - an archetypal force behind your own projections, meeting other archetypal energies... I'm probably confusing myself

Like I said, I come at it from an alien perspective in comparison to the OP - and many kabbalah-types included. A Satanic perspective, rather, using the 'Tree of Wyrd'.

I understand that it's an existing term but I really wish they had chosen a different word other than Wyrd. Wyrd is an Anglo-Saxon word that relates to the Germanic world-view with regard to fate and has absolutely nothing to do with variations of the Kabbalah.

I have been reading about the ToL and Qabala these days, but the more I read about them, the more I feel in the clouds. How I understand them up to now is, that ToL is a conceptual diagram of understanding the world, minds and Deity. So it could have been called anything really, for example AoL - "Arrow of Life" if one wanted call it. So my Aol could have been,

That AoL could also have worked as a diagram albeit a simple one. And all those sephiras can be also depicted as cubes or triangles as well if one wanted.

I am not sure if I am on right track or am I far down somewhere under the Nephesh.

Since starting this thread I've purchased 'The Mystical Qabalah' by Dion Fortune, among other books. I've seen this text thrown around a bit on this forum so I thought I'd get it.

For whatever reason its help has been invaluable. It is most basic, but when overlapping with other texts I have, it puts things in a greater perspective. Just like the Sephiroth, using one specific outlook and/or method in one book for a complete understanding, it will not zoom in and get to the crux of the matter. That may seem obvious; yet here I am. It's by continuous movement, finding the relations between things and the backtracking, and then moving again, that you can begin to understand the ToL. It's destroying the brute logic of the mind and elucidating the symbolic representation that works. For me anyway.

Fortune's book truly is a gem, and was one of the three main texts that got me started on Kabbalah. She explains the points very well in a short, slightly antiquated manner that is as useful as it is charming.

She also stresses independent work, saying that "kabbalah is not a body of knowledge, but a method of thinking."

If you want a book that is more Tarot oriented, I recommend Robert Wang's book, called something like the Kabbalistic Tarot, only I can't recall how he spells Kabbalistic so do a Google search.

I also found Fortune's book succinctly written for the topic. I read about a couple of chapters, but left it there, as at the time for some strange reasons I was getting interested in Enochian and Goetia stuff.

Now of course with the arrival of spring season, I spend a lot of time in the garden for annual maintenance works leaving books behind in the shelf.

I need to get back to the Fortune's and Reagardie's books once things get settled.

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